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Third school collapse raises governance questions

ELEANOR HALL: Now to Victoria and the collapse of another church-run school is raising questions about the governance of independent schools in Australia.

St Anthony's Coptic Orthodox College is the third independent school to close down in Melbourne in just six months.

Once again hundreds of families are scrambling to find new schools for their children.

In Melbourne, Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: St Anthony's Coptic Orthodox College in Frankston North has hundreds of students from prep to Year 12. They now join hundreds of other students of failed independent schools looking for somewhere to continue their schooling next year.

St Anthony's is the third independent school to collapse in Melbourne in just six months. The general secretary of the Independent Education Union, Deb James, is worried it won't be the last.

DEB JAMES: Here we go again. I hoped that Mowbray was a one-off; when Acacia occurred I thought, well, different circumstances; and now that we've got St Anthony's Coptic I think we've really got a situation with independent schools in Victoria and the viability of some of these schools, and unless something is done to address this, I think we'll see some more schools next year.

SIMON LAUDER: How many more schools do you think might be in a similar position, or close to?

DEB JAMES: It would be low numbers. But I think that there are probably another few schools in Victoria who are experiencing a tightened financial situation and unless they take steps to sort themselves out early, they'll end up going down the road of Mowbray College and St Anthony's Coptic and Acacia.

SIMON LAUDER: The Uniting Church school, Acacia College, collapsed last month, under a multimillion dollar debt accrued partly because of a disastrous building project.

Earlier this year Mowbray College went into voluntary administration with $18 million of debt.

St Anthony's Coptic College was put into administration yesterday afternoon. Its enrolments have been declining and the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Melbourne is unwilling to continue losing money.

The administrator, Matthew Gollant, says there's also a significant amount of money owed to the school by parents who haven't paid student fees.

MATTHEW GOLLANT: We're working with the college management to see if there's a way forward. We invite proposals for the 2013 school year and beyond but at this stage without additional cash obviously, we're not in a position to trade the school past the end of this school year.

SIMON LAUDER: The co-director of St Anthony's, Father Daniel Ghabrial, says the school has always struggled financially and has been in serious trouble since August.

He says the school caters for many students whose families who are new to Australia.

DANIEL GHABRIAL: It's about the ethos of the school and that's what independent schools give, they give a feeling, you know but unfortunately sometimes cash is king.

SIMON LAUDER: Cash flow problems are the one thing each of the failed schools has in common, but the administrator of St Anthony's Matthew Gollant says each case is different.

MATTHEW GOLLANT: I think if you looked at Mowbray and Acacia are the other two, again specific issues related to each of those schools. So I wouldn't think it's a general issue facing independent schools.

SIMON LAUDER: Deb James from the Independent Education Union says even though school finances are monitored by state and federal governments, not enough is being done to prevent school closures.

DEB JAMES: Financial reports from each school go in to the federal department every year. My question is, who is looking at these reports, who's reading them and what are they doing in response to them when they see them.

SIMON LAUDER: Last year an Australian Government consultation paper suggested setting up a nation-wide regulator for non-profit schools.

Deb James says whatever happens, the systems in place for oversight of non-government schools are in urgent need of review.

DEB JAMES: Either at a federal level or a state level, the capacity to impose perhaps more sanctions on schools or to impose more conditions on their ongoing registration may be needed. Three hundred to 400 members of staff have lost jobs this year in Victoria because of school closures. Just on 1,600 students have been displaced from schools this year because of school closures. Now this is a situation that is simply not acceptable and somebody needs to step up, take some responsibility for doing something to fix it.

SIMON LAUDER: Parents of St Anthony's college students will find out more about this latest school collapse at a meeting tonight.